Small Business Search Marketinghttp://www.smallbusinesssem.com
Because not everyone can throw thousands of dollars at the 'How do we market ourselves online?' question...Fri, 17 Oct 2014 16:33:35 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1Everything You Need to Know About SEO, You Can Learn on Twitter (Part 1)http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/seo-learn-on-twitter-part-1/7030/
http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/seo-learn-on-twitter-part-1/7030/#commentsFri, 17 Oct 2014 16:33:35 +0000http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/?p=7030Alright peeps, little did you know, but I’ve been faving and bookmarking your SEO tweets for like the past two years or so. Maybe more. (I’ve also been faving and bookmarking your social media marketing tweets, and those’ll show up in a future article.) The thing I’ve learned most from this exercise? You can learn [...]

]]>Alright peeps, little did you know, but I’ve been faving and bookmarking your SEO tweets for like the past two years or so. Maybe more. (I’ve also been faving and bookmarking your social media marketing tweets, and those’ll show up in a future article.)

The thing I’ve learned most from this exercise? You can learn a lot about SEO by following the right people on Twitter.

Below are 21 great SEO lessons from some smart and excellent Twitter users. If you want more of their wisdom, start following them. Or just wait until I compile part two … but that might be a while, so just follow these smart folks.

(By the way, one rule I had when putting this together: No tweets with conference hashtags. Why? Because a) those tweets are likely the words of someone speaking, not the person doing the tweeting, and b) except for #SMX, I tend to mute all conference hashtags to avoid too much clutter and repetition in my stream.)

So if you’re ready, here are 21 Great Tweets About SEO!

General SEO

We need to ask “How do I improve my rankings?” less and “How do improve my site?” more.

]]>http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/seo-learn-on-twitter-part-1/7030/feed/4This Just In: “Deconstructing Pigeon” Session Added to @SMX East (Speakers Wanted)http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/just-deconstructing-pigeon-session-added-smx-east-speakers-wanted/7729/
http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/just-deconstructing-pigeon-session-added-smx-east-speakers-wanted/7729/#commentsThu, 31 Jul 2014 14:41:16 +0000http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/?p=7729In light of last week’s news about Google’s new “Pigeon” local algorithm update, we’ve decided to add a session about it at SMX East: Deconstructing Pigeon, Google’s New Local Search Algorithm I’ll be coordinating that session, and I’m looking for speakers right now! It’s scheduled for day two of the conference, which is October 1st, [...]

I’ll be coordinating that session, and I’m looking for speakers right now! It’s scheduled for day two of the conference, which is October 1st, from 1:30 to 2:45 pm. Ideally, we’ll have a panel with 2-3 speakers and then plenty of time for audience Q&A.

What I’m Looking For

I know it’s less than a week since Pigeon came to light, and many local SEOs are probably still analyzing the changes and how to deal with them. But since SMX East is still about two months away, you should have plenty of time to “wow” the audience with great analysis and actionable tactics.

Here are some of the things I’ll be looking for speakers to cover:

What Pigeon is. We know what Google said: “… it ties deeper into … web search ranking signals.” But is that all? How is Pigeon changing the local search results? (Data about that would be excellent.) What will the impact be on people looking for local businesses? In other words — what’s the big picture? What does this mean?

Winners and losers. Who did Pigeon help? What can we learn from the businesses that are benefitting from this update? Who’s been hurt, and what can we learn from them?

Impact on local listings and listing management? Impact on other local tactics (reviews, etc.)? Short-term impacts? Long-term impacts?

National brands with local offices/stores: What was the impact on you? How are you responding, or planning to respond?

Small/local businesses: What was the impact on you? How are you responding, or planning to respond?

Local SEO consultants: What was the impact on your clients? How are you responding, or planning to respond?

Case studies: It may be too soon, but I’d love for someone to be able to share specific case studies that would benefit the whole audience — these could be related to the questions I’ve posed above, or related to something else (Pigeon-related) not mentioned above.

That should give a general idea of what I’m looking for, but if you have a super idea or have seen something Pigeon-related that I didn’t mention above, and you think it would be make a great presentation, I want to know about it.

How to Pitch for This Session

We’ve re-opened the speaker’s pitch form on the SMX website. So start here and choose “SMX East 2014″ where it asks what conference you want to speak at. (Ignore the part about closing on July 11.)

Then choose “Deconstructing Pigeon” from the dropdown menu that follows. It’ll be the only choice.

Hint #2: DO NOT DELAY. I want to get this session finalized so that speakers can get to work right away, so I’ll be looking to identify speakers as soon as possible. I’d like to have speakers confirmed by the end of next week — August 8th — if possible.

Hint #3: If you don’t see any dropdown menus on that pitch form, it means the session is already closed.

]]>http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/just-deconstructing-pigeon-session-added-smx-east-speakers-wanted/7729/feed/0What I’m Looking For in My Sessions at SMX East 2014http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/im-looking-sessions-smx-east-2014/7718/
http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/im-looking-sessions-smx-east-2014/7718/#commentsThu, 26 Jun 2014 18:02:05 +0000http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/?p=7718We’ve just published the SMX East 2014 agenda and I have two sessions that I’m coordinating this year — one on local search, and the second on Pinterest as a search engine and e-commerce marketing opportunity. The Speaker Pitch Form is also open, so if you’d like the chance to be part of either of [...]

]]>We’ve just published the SMX East 2014 agenda and I have two sessions that I’m coordinating this year — one on local search, and the second on Pinterest as a search engine and e-commerce marketing opportunity.

This is a discussion-only session — no Powerpoints, no formal presentations, just a great panel of local search experts discussing what’s working and what’s not. If you pitch this session, your focus in the Speaker Pitch Form should be on the BIO section. I’ll need to know who you are, what clients you’ve worked with, what specific kind of work you do for your clients — i.e., do you focus on something specific, or are you involved in all aspects of local search optimization? — and stuff like that.

In the PITCH section, there’s no need to pitch a specific topic because the conversation will be wide-ranging. But feel free to use that part to tell me what strategies and tactics are working well, what results/case studies you’re able to talk about and so forth.

If you click on that title, you can read the session description and see that we’re discussing Pinterest as a search channel more so than a social channel. For this session, I would love to have speakers that can discuss

“Pinterest SEO” — i.e., how to optimize images and boards for visibility within Pinterest search

This session is in the Retail track, so I’ll also look forward to getting great pitches that are specific to showing best practices and case studies for how e-commerce stores are succeeding with Pinterest — whether it be via search or other means.

Final Thoughts

If you’re planning to pitch either of my sessions, please do it sooner rather than later. Like many session coordinators, I’ll close a session as soon as I have the pitches/speakers that I want, even if it’s before the pitch form was due to close.

If you have any questions about either of these sessions, drop me a note in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer.

]]>http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/im-looking-sessions-smx-east-2014/7718/feed/0Flat Tires & Pouring Concrete: A Marketing Lesson for Small Businesseshttp://www.smallbusinesssem.com/flat-tires-pouring-concrete-marketing-lesson-small-businesses/7703/
http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/flat-tires-pouring-concrete-marketing-lesson-small-businesses/7703/#commentsFri, 16 May 2014 15:43:11 +0000http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/?p=7703What would you do if you’d gone 35 years without changing a flat tire on your bike? On Wednesday, I decided to call an expert. Mike Watkins and his small business — Roundabout Cycling, a mobile bike repair service — had just been featured in our local paper earlier this week. I told him I [...]

What would you do if you’d gone 35 years without changing a flat tire on your bike?

On Wednesday, I decided to call an expert.

Mike Watkins and his small business — Roundabout Cycling, a mobile bike repair service — had just been featured in our local paper earlier this week. I told him I didn’t trust myself to do it right after three decades, and Mike promised to come out, fix my flat tire and give my bike a general tune-up, too.

While we were on the phone, Mike said he’d be happy to educate me so that I could do it all myself next time. “I don’t mind giving my knowledge away,” he said.

Did you catch that? “I don’t mind giving my knowledge away.”

This guy really gets it, I thought to myself. I was sold. Didn’t need to hear anything else.

Mike came out yesterday. He spent an hour with me in the garage and driveway, walking me through the tire change, teaching me how to adjust the brakes, tune the derailleur, do something called “wheel truing” and even showing me how to loosen and tighten the spokes on the wheel. (Confession: I didn’t even know you could loosen and tighten spokes.)

When he was finishing up, I told him it was fascinating and incredibly educational.

“Now you can do it yourself next time,” he said.

“I’m still gonna call you next time,” I said.

How To Pour Concrete

Story No. 2: We’re going to be adding some rock beds to the landscaping here at Casa McGee, and I have a specific vision: I want the rock bed to have a thin, concrete edging. All of the lawn edging products at Home Depot are ugly and plastic and not what I want. But a nice, thin concrete strip all along the bed will be perfect.

I figured I’d buy some quick-drying concrete at Home Depot, dig up the space myself, pour the concrete and put the rocks in. Not easy, but something I could do myself.

I went to Beaver Bark, a local garden center, to price out different kinds of rocks. Right on top of the rock display, I found exactly what I needed: a brochure titled “Redi-Mix Concrete.”

When I got home and opened it up, this is what I found: (click for larger version — seriously, do it)

That’s more about making a concrete patio, not edging, but it took less than 30 seconds for me to figure out that this is not something I want to do by myself.

Beaver Bark gave its knowledge away — told me exactly how to do what I want done — and convinced me not to do it myself.

The Marketing Lesson for Small Businesses

If you provide a service based on skill and expertise, giving your knowledge away will attract customers.

I guarantee it.

I’ve been preaching this for years, and some small business owner will always object this way: “If I tell people how to do what I do, they won’t need me to do it.”

Actually, in the vast majority of cases, I bet as soon as you tell people how to do what you do, they’ll realize it’s better for them to hire you to do it, rather than try it themselves. Sure, there are some really great D-I-Y types out there — people that would pick up that concrete-making brochure and decide to do the work themselves.

Guess what? Those people, the D-I-Y types, were never gonna hire you in the first place.

But the rest of us, people like me, are gonna see your expertise and realize it’s a better investment than trying to do something new ourselves.

Mike the bike repair guy summed it up perfectly: “I don’t mind giving my knowledge away.” He’s gonna do very, very well with that attitude.

You will, too.

Share your knowledge: start a blog, create white papers, do an online guide explaining how to do what you do, find other ways to position yourself as the expert. And — as long as you really are an expert and good at what you do — your phone will start ringing. Promise.

]]>http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/flat-tires-pouring-concrete-marketing-lesson-small-businesses/7703/feed/1Need Local SEO Help? Try the Local U Forumshttp://www.smallbusinesssem.com/need-local-seo-help-try-local-u-forums/7681/
http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/need-local-seo-help-try-local-u-forums/7681/#commentsSun, 23 Feb 2014 21:47:01 +0000http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/?p=7681I’ve been remiss in mentioning that the Local University crew recently opened up a members-only local search forum that gives everyone access to conversations and Q&A with the Local U faculty, not to mention some of the smartest minds in the local search/marketing industry. It’s like drafting your own local search “dream team” and having [...]

]]>I’ve been remiss in mentioning that the Local University crew recently opened up a members-only local search forum that gives everyone access to conversations and Q&A with the Local U faculty, not to mention some of the smartest minds in the local search/marketing industry.

It’s like drafting your own local search “dream team” and having access to ask questions whenever you want. Can’t beat that, especially since the monthly fee is less than what you’d spend for just one hour of consulting with folks like Mike Blumenthal, David Mihm, Mary Bowling, Mike Ramsey and the rest of the Local U crew (me included).

But it’s not just about access to Local U; other Forum members include Darren Shaw, Carrie Hill, Andrew Shotland, Phil Rozek and the list could go on and on.

Here are just a couple of the recent conversations started by our members:

That’s just a sample of what you’ll find. Since there’s a cost to join the forum, the content has a very good signal-to-noise ratio — people are having great discussions and getting real answers to serious questions.

The introductory price is just $99/month, and the first month is only $49. When you compare it to the cost of hiring a consultant, it’s a real bargain.

]]>http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/need-local-seo-help-try-local-u-forums/7681/feed/0Keywords in Your Twitter Name Seem to Matter for Twitter Searchhttp://www.smallbusinesssem.com/keywords-twitter-name-seem-matter-twitter-search/7669/
http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/keywords-twitter-name-seem-matter-twitter-search/7669/#commentsFri, 14 Feb 2014 16:08:26 +0000http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/?p=7669Remember that little experiment I wrote about two months ago, where I was wondering how much a keyword in your account name matters when optimizing for Twitter search? Apparently it matters. I changed the name of @GlassAlmanac, the Twitter account for my hobby site Glass Almanac, from “Glass Almanac” to “Google Glass Almanac.” The account [...]

]]>Remember that little experiment I wrote about two months ago, where I was wondering how much a keyword in your account name matters when optimizing for Twitter search?

Apparently it matters.

I changed the name of @GlassAlmanac, the Twitter account for my hobby site Glass Almanac, from “Glass Almanac” to “Google Glass Almanac.” The account was originally MIA if you searched Twitter for accounts about Google Glass. After I changed the account name, it hit the Top 15 and eventually settled in at No. 6.

Sometime within the last 2-3 weeks, this happened:

Nice, right?

That’s what I see when I do a Twitter search for “google glass” in three of four accounts that I have access to. When I’m logged in to the fourth Twitter account (the @atu2 account, if you need to know), I still see it at No. 6.

There must be some kind of personalization going on, but I don’t see any logic behind the other accounts seeing @GlassAlmanac at No. 2 and this one seeing it at No. 6.

As I wrote in December, this isn’t meant to be anything close to a scientific study. It’s completely anecdotal, and obviously there are many factors that determine Twitter search results. But it seems pretty safe, if not a bit obvious, to say that having the keyword in the account name matters. And whatever else Twitter uses, cool … I’m just happy to be up there near the top.

(Now if only more people would use Twitter search to find Glass-related accounts and start following @GlassAlmanac….)